Chris Geeslin was the spiritual advisor to Tom DeLay’s (R-TX) chief of staff Ed Buckham and went on to head the Buckham founded U.S. Family Network. Little did Geeslin know that he was being used to mask a front organization that funneled money from shady clients of Jack Abramoff into partisan politics – and into Buckham’s bank account. Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker caught Geeslin talking on NPR about how he learned that the business he was involved in wasn’t exactly Kosher:

NPR’s John Ydstie: Geeslin first became uneasy when large donations started rolling in, one for $1 million. He said he suggested to Buckham that maybe the group should focus more on being the grassroots organization described in the U.S. Family Network’s mission statement.

Chris Geeslin: “And [Buckham] looked at me with some disdain. And he said, ‘You know where that million dollars came from? I said, ‘Well, no.’ And he told me ‘This is the way Washington works.’ And he was schooling me, so to speak. He said, ‘That money came from Russian enery magnates, or oil magnates, who wanted to influence Congressman DeLay so he would not vote against the IMF funding of the bailout of Russia.’ And again, he said, ‘That’s the way Washington works, it runs on money.’ At the time, I didn’t know what to do with that. It was like, this has gotta be a joke. It’s beyond belief. It’s surreal.”

There’s Ed Buckham for you; crusher of ideals, destroyer of moral fiber. He’s like a corrupt politician from a Capra film.